VARIOUS ARTISTS - Gigantour

Gigantour is a big metal event touring each year in the United States and Australia. Excepts from the 2005 edition have been published as a
double-CD live set containing a couple of songs from all nine artists.

Dream Theater make the start and present two perfect songs containing everything you expect from the progressive
metal gods. The Glass Prison lasts thirteen minutes and is a real masterpiece. My favourite band on this album are
Anthrax, probably for nostalgic reasons. Caught In A Mosh and I Am The Law
are two late Eighties classics making me regret that their reunion tour didn't stop in Luxemburg. I never appreciated
Life Of Agony very much and their two tracks don't fascinate me either. The Day He Died
annoys with pseudo-dramatic post-grunge vocals and Love To Let You Down surely is the album's worst track.
Dry Kill Logic play two modern thrash metal songs with groovy parts. It's not too exciting, but also not bad at
all. The first CD ends with Bobaflex, the only band I didn't know before the release of the CD. Their metal isn't
bad, but not too spectacular. Fans of Kiss will like it.

The second CD starts with Megadeth playing one classic and two more recent tracks.
A Tout Le Monde has always been one of my favourite songs and is far more interesting than the other two songs.
Unlike in Luxemburg, Fear Factory weren't electrocuted on the Gigantour so that they can play one brutal and one
melodic track, both powered up with cool and complex structures. Nevermore are another highlight on the CD. I
can't name any other band combining power and thrash metal in such a smooth way as they do. Their advantage is that Warrel Dane has a
unique metal voice. Last featured band are Symphony X who would like to sound like Dream Theater. Even if they
can't reach their idols, their melodic and progressive metal is worth listening to.

Even if the music itself is ok, I have still two negative remarks to make about this release. First of all, I wonder who will buy this
album instead of the bands' regular albums. The Gigantour CD is probably only interesting for people who visited on of these gigs.
Secondly a single CD would have been possible if a shorter track by Dream Theater had been chosen and only two instead of three Megadeth
tracks. But if a double CD is looking more impressive than a single one, why didn't they put much more music on it?